Aztecs get $3M MWC check; lost $88K on bowl

San Diego State head coach Rocky Long celebrates with his team after the teams win against Buffalo. San Diego State defeated Buffalo 49-24 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. Saturday December 21, 2013

Kyle Green

San Diego State head coach Rocky Long celebrates with his team after the teams win against Buffalo. San Diego State defeated Buffalo 49-24 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. Saturday December 21, 2013

San Diego State head coach Rocky Long celebrates with his team after the teams win against Buffalo. San Diego State defeated Buffalo 49-24 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. Saturday December 21, 2013 (Kyle Green)

San Diego State may have beaten Buffalo in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl last December.

But the trip up to Boise, Idaho and the distinction of getting to play in the Aztecs’ record fourth-straight bowl game cost the SDSU Athletic Department $88,403.

According to documents obtained by the U-T through a public records request, the Aztecs’ bowl adventure cost $866,614.29.

That includes $460,000 for the team charter and $52,800 of unsold tickets. The Aztecs also spent about $40,000 on tickets for their travel party, $98,000 on their hotel, $104,000 on meals and per diem for the players, $44,000 in ground transportation, $60,000 for equipment and awards, $9,500 for their equipment truck and about $24,000 in miscellaneous expenses.

SDSU recouped some of that money thanks to a $426,550 bowl expense reimbursement from the Mountain West, a $265,000 share of the league’s bowl distribution money, and $75,000 in ticket sales.

That left a deficit of $88,403, which exceeded the $60,000 the Aztecs lost when they played in the 2011 New Orleans Bowl on short notice.

Still, SDSU athletic director Jim Sterk said Wednesday the expense was worth it, and the Aztecs never considered turning down their bowl invitation.

“When it comes to some bowls, the costs depends on the charter prices. You have eight days to get there, it’s a tight timeline and you try to do the best you can,” Sterk said. “But it’s another three hours of national TV and the momentum we’ve had with football going to four-straight bowls and the opportunity for extra practices with the younger guys.”

SDSU has also received its conference distribution check from the Mountain West. The Aztecs pocketed roughly $3.319 million – just over a million dollars more than they got from the league last year.

The reason?

The Mountain West’s next TV rights deal with CBS Sports and ESPN.

“It was about what we expected,” Sterk said. “Obviously, we had hoped, when we signed the deal, that it would have been more. But it was what we expected out of the last year or so.”

The total of $3,319.805 breaks down as follows:

TV revenue: $1,448,091.24 (this includes the $800,000 SDSU got from the Mountain West’s football bonus incentive scheme that paid bonuses for appearances on national television.)

SDSU paid out $189,603 in bonuses to its football coaching staff. Of that sum, $50,000 went to Rocky Long per the terms of his contract and the rest was split among the assistant coaches, with each assistant getting a bonus equivalent to eight percent of his annual salary.

This ranged from $8,000 for offensive line coach Mike Schmidt, to about $16,400.64 for offensive coordinator Bob Toledo.

Assistant coaches get raises

SDSU will spend $2,813,852 on its entire football staff for the 2014-15 school year. That includes all the coaches, four administrative assistants, Director of Football Operations Jashon Sykes, Director of Player Personnel Kevin McGarry and strength coaches Adam Hall and Chris Jurek.

That number is up $159,676 from 2013, but the amount allotted to the assistant coaches’ salary pool actually went down.

The difference is purely technical. As the Aztecs’ new director of player personnel, Kevin McGarry ($157,500 salary) no longer counts as an assistant coach. Instead, the Aztecs added a linebackers coach position this offseason, and former graduate assistant coach Zach Arnett will make $75,000 in his new role.

Hall received a $25,000 raise on March 1 and now makes $125,000. Schmidt received a $10,000 raise on the same date and now makes $110,000.

On March 1, 2013, McGarry, Danny Gonzales, Osia Lewis, LeCharls McDaniel, Brian Sipe and Tony White all received raises of $7,500 and they each currently make $157,500 annually.

Assistant head coach and running backs coach Jeff Horton also received a raise last March. He was bumped from $150,000 to $200,004.

Planned improvements

The SDSU athletic department just invested more than a million dollars into renovations in the Fowler Athletic Center.

The Aztecs are also currently revamping its softball locker rooms and putting in new flooring and bleachers in the Peterson Gym, which will also get a new fan system.

Going forward, Sterk is looking into converting the football practice field from grass to turf. The Aztecs are still trying to work out how much the project will cost, Sterk said.

Even farther into the future, Sterk said there have been conversations about expanding the weight room by blowing out the wall toward the Alumni Center, where the new basketball performance center will be.